BRICS Bank board to discuss internal policies in Nov meet
October 9, 2015, 9:23 am

Participants in the BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting, Meeting of the Board of Governors of the BRICS New Development Bank on 7 July 2015 in Moscow, Russia [Image: brics2015.ru]

“The second meeting of the board of directors will be held on the 20th of November,” the deputy minister said. The agenda is expected to include resolutions on preparation of internal policies of the bank.

“The task of the president and vice presidents is to set out internal policies and there are many of them,” Storchak said.

The board of governors appointed members of the BRICS board of directors and the management led by the president, Kundapur Vaman Kamath, in July this year.

The first board meet on 6th July in Moscow also discussed rules regarding procedures and the bank’s five-year development strategy.

The BRICS countries include the world’s major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The new BRICS bank will compete with institutions where the US has considerably more influence—organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The agreement was signed by the bloc’s five members on July 15 last year during the sixth BRICS summit.

No screening criteria for projects have been spelled out yet, the Russian deputy finance minister said on Friday.

“Clearly these should be financially viable projects, in line with goals and mission of the bank,” he added.

The New Development Bank (NDB) will soon set up a hotline with the new China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Russia “will not have any problems with the first tranche of the contribution to either AIIB [Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank — TASS] or the New Development Bank,” the deputy finance minister noted.

Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said earlier this summer the BRICS Bank will work closely with the China-led AIIB, as was announced through the Ufa communique at the close of the 7th BRICS Summit in Russia earlier.

The NDB will supplement the existing international financial system in a healthy way and explore innovations in governance models, Lou said.

The bank will name its first investment in April next year and the first loan will be issued in yuan not dollar, top officials confirmed.

The paid-in reserves are planned to be denominated in each country’s currency. The Chinese renmimbi is also expected to replace the dollar at the BRICS Bank, especially for projects in Asia.

The BRICS bank has an initial authorized capital of $100 billion.

Its initial subscribed capital of $50 billion will be equally shared among the founding members.

It will have a three-tier governance structure — a board of governors, a board of directors, a president and vice presidents.

As agreed by the five countries, the first chair of the board of governors has been nominated by Russia, the first chair of the board of directors by Brazil, and the first president by India.

An African regional center of the bank will be based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

China, with $4 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, is pushing for the growth of its own multilateral bodies, including the AIIB, the BRICS Bank and a bank for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, but also seeking to strengthen its voice at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

TBP and Agencies